The present invention relates to a total fiber recovery method and apparatus for cotton. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recovering substantially all of the usable fiber which is separated with the waste in conventional ginning and textile mill cleaning processes.
During conventional cleaning of cotton fiber at the gin and during the first part of textile processing, some fiber is lost with the trash which is removed. The fiber that is removed, particularly at the gin, is very valuable if the fiber can be separated from the trash without reducing the fiber properties of the good fiber.
Several attempts have been made to recover substantially all of the usable fiber which is discarded with the trash from a cotton gin. However, these attempts have not met with great success. Often, any fiber which was recovered by the prior systems was not clean enough to be used for spinning or weaving. Other systems still threw away a substantial quantity of good fiber in the recovery system and therefore proved uneconomical because of a low yield.
One prior system is disclosed in the defensive publication T971,001 of Mangialardi Jr. The Mangialardi Jr. defensive publication discloses an apparatus for reclaiming lint cotton and returning it to the ginning process. The apparatus includes a drying and cleaning device which removes moisture and large particles of trash. The partially cleaned fibers are then moved into a second cleaning stage comprising an extractor feeder and gin stands. Trash from these two stages are sent to a central waste collection bin. The clean fiber is then moved into a series of saw-type lint cleaners in which further waste material is removed. The waste material from these lint cleaning stages is then brought into a reclaiming apparatus which comprises a further lint condenser and lint cleaner. The reclaimed lint from this stage is then returned to the first saw-type lint cleaner to be recycled through the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,615 issued to Hill, Jr. discloses a process for reclaiming cotton fibers from gin motes. The process includes initially cleaning the gin motes to remove large trash and then carding and drafting the cleaned motes to obtain a cleaner fiber.
Another process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,669,771 issued to Mitchell et al. The Mitchell et al patent discloses a method of reclaiming seed cotton discharged with the hulls from a cotton cleaning process. The Mitchell et al patent discloses subjecting the waste products to the action of fan blades to loosen up cotton locks so that the cotton contained therein can be more readily engaged by the teeth of the saw cylinders employed for reclaiming the cotton.
Other waste cleaning systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,632,924; 2,219,285; 1,690,375; 1,037,340 and 661,166.
There is no assurance in these prior art systems of recovering substantially all of the usuable fibers from the waste. In particular, the motes are not adequately opened by the conventional methods employed by the prior art. The motes comprise cotton fiber aggregates which are sufficiently dense to be discarded with the trash in conventional cleaning processes. The motes include "pills" which are tightly packed balls of cotton. The majority of prior fiber recovery methods merely recycle the material rejected through the same processing steps in an attempt to reclaim at least some of the usable fiber. Without providing additional processing steps, it is apparent that these prior art methods will still reject a substantial quantity of good fiber, particularly the fibers contained in the motes.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for reclaiming substantially all of the good cotton fiber from the material which is removed in a conventional ginning process or during the first part of cotton textile processing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of removing fiber from former waste materials which separates the fibers into two distinct fiber groups, the first group consisting of a long fiber fraction and the second group consisting of a short fiber fraction. A long fiber fraction is a quantity of fiber containing a higher concentration of long fibers while a short fiber fraction contains a higher concentration of short fibers.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a method for cleaning the waste from a cotton gin which method produces a fiber with a low non-lint content and also minimizes further losses of good fiber during the fiber reclaiming process.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method of cleaning waste material from a gin which opens cotton motes and produces useful fibers from these motes.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a method which consists of opening bales of waste provided from ginning processes and subjecting this waste to a first cleaning and opening step where a quantity of trash and motes are discarded. The partially cleaned material is then conveyed into a lint cleaning stage from which more trash and motes are rejected. From there, the partially cleaned fiber is transported to a reserve hopper-feeder which feeds into a first cleaner and carder. This first cleaner and carder will also dump out more trash along with cotton motes.
The present invention also provides for collecting the trash from the initial cleaning stage, the lint cleaner, and the first cleaner and carder. The collected trash and lint is then fed into a cyclone to remove the air from the trash and fibers contained therein. This formerly wasted material is then transported into a drum screen cleaner which drops out essentially only the non-lint solid waste fraction while retaining the lint and fiber motes. The lint and fiber motes from the drum screen cleaner are then conveyed into a carder and opener. In the carder and opener, the motes remaining including the "pills" are all opened.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fiber from the carder and opener is then conveyed into a second cleaner and carder to further clean and orient the retained fibrous material. According to this embodiment of the present invention, the fiber product outputs of the first cleaner and carder, and the second cleaner and carder will be separate. The output of the first cleaner and carder will consist of a long fiber fraction whereas the output of the second cleaner and carder will consist of a short fiber fraction.
According to another embodiment of the present invention the opened fibers from the carder and opener are conveyed back to the first cleaner and carder and mixed with the fibers obtained from the initial cleaning stage to produce a single output of mixed fiber lengths.
According to a further embodiment of the present inventon, the varying lengths of fiber are maintained separate by employing a holding bin for the cleaned material from the drum screen cleaner. In this way, the lint containing the long fiber fraction is processed first through a single cleaner and carder. Subsequently the material reserved from the drum screen cleaner is conveyed into the carder and opener and then conveyed into the single cleaner and carder opener to be further cleaned and oriented separately to obtain a short fiber fraction.